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Can you help usher in the digital age at The Poly in Falmouth?

A call has been issued for Cornish cinephiles to help bring a wider variety of films to the screen in Falmouth.

The Poly is launching an appeal to raise funds for a new projection system, which would allow it to screen the many movies each year which are only produced in digital format.

At the same time, film fans are being offered the opportunity for their names to become part of the fabric of the arts venue itself, by sponsoring a seat in the auditorium.

Lesley Robinson, general manager and film programmer at the Poly, said: “We’ve got a really old setup and can only screen 35-millimetre old film stock or DVD or Blu-ray. The target is to raise £50,000, to be able to install a state of the art digital system into our cinema so we can screen films that have just been released, lots of other interesting re-releases, and old films that are on digital.”

As part of their campaign, the organisation is running a ‘sponsor a seat campaign’, where for a minimum donation of £150 a supporter can have their or another person’s name inscribed on a brass plaque which will be attached to a seat of their choice in the auditorium, and will also be entered into a quarterly draw to win show tickets.

Lesely said: “We’ve got 180 seats in our auditorium and what we want is a name on the back of every one. At the moment we’ve got about 20, in the last three weeks we’ve had about 10 people buying a seat.

“It’s a nice commemoration; you’ve got your name there forever.”

Although the cinema will have a new projection system, Lesley stressed that the old 35mm projector will be kept for “special occasions”.

The cinema is also now home to the Cornwall Film Festival and there are plenty of collaborations planned, but everything now depends on getting the money for the new system.

As well as the seat sponsorship plan, the Poly is trying to raise money through grant funding, and a proportion of the £1 levy on each ticket, which is largely designed to pay for general upkeep of the building, is being put towards the new equipment. There is also an online funding page at www.nationalfundingscheme.org/RCPS001.

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